Category Archives: Uncategorised

This is the final and fourth of the Limbo podcast. In the authors, Klara Nordahl, own words:

“This is, to me, the most important episode, of my podcast Limbo. This episode is about the personal stories from the people who are waiting or have received a resolution in the asylum system. A special thank to the courageous and kind people I have talked to.”

The Universal – Annual Human Rights Review is looking for papers for its 2018 volume. The theme is “Human Rights in Context – Translation, Adaptation, and Dissemination”.
The deadline for submitting abstracts is November 15, 2017.

The fifth seminar in the series “Atrocities and the Development of Human Rights” focused on how human rights has changed global political and legal landscapes as a reaction to the genocides in Rwanda and Bosnia and the fall of the South African Apartheid regime in the 90’s. Continue reading →

Jakob Lindmark Frier is the new chairperson. Jakob has a master degree in business studies and communication from RUC and since last year he has expanded the scope of Think Rights into the area of human rights and businesses.

Morten Bruun is our new vice-chairperson. Morten recently finished his B.Sc. in sociology at UCPH and will be pursuing his masters this fall. He has had an important role in planning and executing our recent seminar series Atrocities and Development of Human Rights and he is now leading the development of a new series in the fall.

On the 13th of April Robin May Schott gave her talk on sexual violence in conflict. As is the case for most issues in human rights, we are dealing with a very complex issue. Rape has always been part of war, but it has only recently become the focus of scholarly research and political action. The genocide in Rwanda and the Yugoslavian civil war made the public aware of the issue.

Though the new found focus on preventing rape is indeed positive, much can be criticized about the way the issue has been tackled in international politics. The political discourse has been dominated by a binary logic – with women as victims and men as perpetrators. This focus tends to both diminish the agency of women and overlook male victims of rape. In this, the political discourse reproduces a binary concept of gender.

The language ‘rape as a weapon of war’ is equally problematic. Rape is not only a strategy used during conflict, but might better be described as a practice of war. Something tolerated, but not necessarily planed. The challenge is then, how can we focus on changing the social conditions that lead to rape?

Imagine that you have been forced into a room. The room is filled with a constant explosion of sounds, blinking lights and distorted visual effects. You are locked in, and exposed to this cacophony of sounds and light until you are on the verge of breaking.

This was how Ahlam Chemlali, Project Manager at DIGNITY, described a new torture technique known as a ‘fun house’. This technique does not leave a physical mark on the body, but has psychological implications, and it is a technique that lets democratic countries, such as the UK, outsource torture to non-democratic countries, such as Saudi Arabia. And with that description she kicked off the third seminar in Think Rights’ seminar series Atrocities and the Development of Human Rights.

In her lecture, Chemlali discussed how states legitimize torture by making it a matter of protecting states from terrorism and protecting civilians by getting information out of suspects. However, she asserted that this, by no means, is based on facts or scientific research. It is solely based on fear. This is also the case when Ted Cruz says that waterboarding isn’t torture but ‘just’ enhanced interrogation, or when Donald Trump says that he’ll “bring a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding”. To this Chemlali added: “Waterboarding is torture, there are no grey areas”.

The first seminar in the series: ’Atrocities and the History of Human Rights’ was held at Studenterhuset on February 10, 2016. Morten Dige from Aarhus University visited Studenterhuset to conduct the seminar, and it was a great success! ‘Human Dignity and Human Rights’ set the frame for the seminar, which gave rise to a provoking and fascinating philosophical debate with a lively crowd wanting to discuss the nature of humanity.

Who has the right to dignity, and how has dignity as a term changed over time? What is the relation between dignity and human rights? And is the concept of human dignity a basis of human rights? These were just some of the questions, which Morten Dige addressed during the seminar. Not only did these questions open up for a conceptual discussion about humanity and what the term implies and means, it also linked the concepts of philosophy and history, which gave the audience something to think about in terms of the general application of human rights, and in terms of the contemporary issues relating to the concepts of human rights and dignity.

Would you like to be a part of a network of students and professionals with a shared interest in human rights? Would you like to help shape the future of a dynamic human rights organization? Do you want know more about the work of Think Rights?

Then join us for an information meeting and annual general assembly. At the meeting we will introduce the organization, our projects and tell how you can get involved. All groups are open to new members.

After the information meeting we will have our annual general assembly where we will elect the new board. To vote for the board you need to be a registered member of Think Rights. You can sign up at the meeting for 50 kr. pr year which includes a copy of The Universal, our annual human rights journal .

If you want to know more about the board, please contact chairman Alexander Andersson at info@thinkrights.dk.